In this interview series by
Website Planet, leaders from successful online companies reveal exactly the strategies, tools, and resources that helped them stand out and grow even in the most competitive markets. Each interview is a mini collection of tips proven by decades of experience and real data that you can apply immediately to any website at any stage of growth, and see quick results.
Eliott Jabès is the CEO and co-founder of Stockly, a “stock exchange for e-commerce”, which allows online stores to sell products from each other’s stock when items are unavailable on their own platforms. Jabès shares how, Stockly has been able to grow rapidly in a 100-people team, and achieving a ~3X YoY revenue growth.
In 1-2 sentences, what does your company do and for whom? What are your numbers right now in terms of revenue, customers, and team?
In 2024, approximately 13.37% of online shoppers globally reported encountering out-of-stock issues while making a purchase on online eCommerce stores. This number highlights the ongoing challenge that retailers face in managing inventory effectively and meeting consumer demand.
Stockouts directly result in lost sales opportunities, customer dissatisfaction (studies suggest that approximately 70% of customers who experience stockouts will look for alternatives), and increased operational costs for last-minute restocking.
Stockly is revolutionizing e-commerce by connecting inventories to build limitless online shopping experiences. We serve e-retailers by allowing them to sell products they don’t physically have in stock, sourcing them in real-time from our network of suppliers. As of November 2024, we’re proud to have a team of approximately 100 Stocklers, and while I can’t disclose exact revenue figures, I can share that we’ve been consistently tripling our revenue year-over-year.
What unique approach, features, or capabilities make you stand out from the competition, and how exactly? Can you share metrics and examples that show the difference you’re making?
Our standout feature is our real-time inventory matching technology. When a customer tries to purchase an out-of-stock item on one of our partner’s websites, our system instantly searches our network of hundreds of suppliers to find the product and fulfill the order. This happens in less than 100 milliseconds, ensuring a seamless experience for the end customer.
To illustrate the impact, let’s look at a case study with one of our major partners. Before implementing Stockly, they were losing about 15% of potential sales due to stockouts. Within six months of integration, we helped them recover 8% of those lost sales, directly increasing their revenue. Moreover, our virtual warehouse now holds over 115 million items, effectively expanding our partners’ product offerings without any additional inventory costs.
What are the unexpected challenges your company has faced since its founding, and what are the most valuable lessons you have learned from these ups and downs?
We encountered issues with product matching accuracy and delivery times as we rapidly grew from serving a handful of partners to over a hundred. This taught us the crucial lesson of building scalable processes from the start.
We addressed this by investing heavily in our AI-powered matching algorithms and implementing a rigorous quality control system. Now, we maintain a close-to-perfect accuracy rate in product matching, even as we process millions of potential matches daily.
Another valuable lesson was
the importance of clear communication with both our retail partners and suppliers. We’ve learned to be proactive in sharing data and insights, which has significantly improved our relationships and operational efficiency.
What has been your most effective marketing channel so far, and why? Great if you can share one specific campaign or tactic that yielded great results.
Our most effective marketing channels have been cold outreach and strategic partnerships within the e-commerce industry. Given the B2B nature of our business, traditional marketing channels are less effective for us.
Cold outreach works great for us as we only target retailers that have high matching rates with our existing customers so that we are sure that we will bring them value from day-1.
What are the emerging trends and challenges you plan on tackling next year? How exactly do you plan to do that?
A challenge we’re tackling is cross-border e-commerce complexities. We’re expanding our capabilities to handle international transactions more seamlessly, including real-time currency conversion, tax calculations, and compliance with various international shipping regulations.
We are also automating more and more of our operations to serve the customers better and improve their post-order experience.
To wrap up, if you had to share one business tip that the rest of your industry disagrees with, what would it be?
Prioritize long-term sustainability over rapid growth. This goes against the common industry mindset of “grow fast or die,” but here’s why it can be valuable:
- Sustainable growth allows for building a more solid foundation, reducing the risk of collapse under rapid expansion.
- It gives time to refine products/services and truly understand your market, leading to better long-term customer satisfaction.
- It can result in more stable financials and less reliance on external funding, giving you more control over your company’s direction.
- It can lead to a stronger company culture.
How can our readers connect with you?
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ejabes/
